Sign Your Name Upon My Heart
by cupidcookies
Summary: Kurt lost his hearing during his junior year of high school, he's just transferred to Dalton and is surprised when the lead singer of the Warblers make the effort to communicate with him. He can no longer sing but he can definitely still listen.


_''No regrets, just love''_

Blaine's ever perfect two step came to a halt as he stood still for a moment to place emphasis on the lines he'd just sung. As he stopped, his eyes drifted towards a lone figure in the doorway, staring at him and the other performers with an intensity he'd never seen before. It puzzled him, but he had to continue with the show, so he slid effortlessly back into the gentle dance, reluctantly moving his eyes away from the boy and back to focus on the rest of the room which was significantly more populated than where he'd chosen to stand. When his eyes flicked back to where he'd been the spot was empty.

Kurt wandered through the Dalton corridors feeling more isolated than ever. He'd just been to the one place he used to be able to fit in even at his homophobic public school, yet he knew that now it was different. He'd never be able to perform with a Glee club again and that killed him. The Warblers seemed to light up the whole school in a way he'd never seen before; back at McKinley the Glee club had been endlessly taunted; they were the losers of the school, but he'd stuck at it because he loved it. The friendships he made, even with those members he loved to hate, had meant the world to him and it was in that simple little choir room where he'd really begun to feel comfortable in himself.

As he reached his first class of the day and slipped inside the empty classroom to take his seat he couldn't help wondering how much longer he'd be able to appear confident to the outer world when inside his whole self esteem and reason for living was crumbling. He'd always prided himself on being a strong individual, it took a lot to bring him down, but what had happened to him just before summer break had taken away the thing he held onto for comfort, the thing he could turn to when the only thing that could make him feel better was to flounce up on stage and belt out a musical number and the thing he dreamed of doing in the future. With that gone he couldn't even settle into this new school properly. The place that would usually be his first port of call simply wasn't open to him anymore.

Just as the class began to fill up, Kurt remembered he'd forgotten one of the necessary books from his dorm room. He sighed inaudibly, but shuffled to his feet, hoping he could successfully get across the school and back to the class before the teacher arrived. If it was anything like McKinley where the teachers didn't seem to know where they were supposed to be and when he'd have no problem with that. He knew Dalton was likely to be different though. Hell, even the students had started to arrive to class early.

As he made his way to his room he shook his head at himself. This was just his luck, he'd been so prepared for his first day, arriving to class early, only to find himself without the necessary things once he got there. He dashed into his room and took the book he needed from where it was in full view on the desk before scurrying back out and making his way to the classroom once again.

Blaine was running late for class. It was something that was becoming a pattern for him lately, he was trying to please too many people at once, so he'd find himself agreeing to an impromptu Warblers' performance only to find himself the only one not prepared for the class they were due to have straight after it. He made his way to the stairs, spotting the boy who'd been in the common room earlier stepping onto them just before him. He dashed down them behind him and, recognizing him as new, thought it would be a good opportunity to introduce himself.

''Excuse me,'' he said politely, expecting the boy to turn around. He didn't. ''Excuse me,'' he said again, louder this time. The place was eerily quiet with all the students in class already, but he knew how it was possible to zone out when running somewhere. Still, the boy didn't turn. He frowned and would have fallen into step behind him as he walked down the corridor if he hadn't managed to trip on the final step of the staircase, sending his whole body tumbling to the ground. He groaned and picked up his scattered books before climbing back onto his feet and straightening his blazer off. The boy was out of site by now, but Blaine couldn't help wondering why he hadn't turned upon hearing him fall. He may be small, but even he could make a clatter when he fell to the ground. He was too late to class to be wondering those things though, so quickly made his way down the corridor and around a few twisting corners before bursting, as politely as possible, into his English class.

''I'm sorry,'' he said, pulling a face at the tutor who was more than used to this by now. ''I got caught up at practice and then I had to get my books and then I fell and..'' he made his way to a free seat at the back of the classroom as directed by the teacher's nod. It was testament to Dalton students that the last remaining seats were at the back of class rather than the front. He knocked into a few desks on his way, apparently unable to shake free from the clumsy gods that day, and as he knocked into one he noticed there was a woman sat at one of the desks. That was unusual for an all boy's school, generally seats were taken by male students. He glanced to the seat next to her only to see the boy he'd apparently been following all day. Maybe he had dyslexia, he thought to himself, sometimes students were given readers or scribes for that reason. He really shouldn't be this interested in one boy, but something about him struck him and he wanted to know more.

Once the lesson started Blaine managed to drag his eyes away from the back of his head for at least ten minutes, an effort he was very pleased with, but somehow they managed to find their way back there after that. He noticed the woman next to him writing things on a piece of paper, she looked to be taking notes, although he seemed to be writing his own perfectly well.

''Mr. Anderson,'' the voice of the teacher entered his consciousness and his eyes flicked back towards him. ''I've been asking you for the past two minutes for your opinions on our latest text, but I'm beginning to wonder if you've even read it.''

''Yes, yes, sorry, I've read it,'' the words tumbled out of Blaine's mouth as he picked up the book in front of him. ''The Great Gatsby, I found it very enlightening.''

The teacher glanced at him and shook his head, obviously not believing him. Blaine groaned inwardly, knowing that would be yet another awkward conversation to look forward to. He had read it, maybe not as in depth as he used to read his set texts, but he'd definitely read it. As his eyes wandered back down to his desk he caught hand movements in the corner of them. The woman was the one making them. Suddenly it clicked; she was signing to him. Why hadn't he thought of that?

The rest of the lesson passed without event, Blaine managed to focus and answer any questions aimed at him and he only allowed himself to look at the boy he was so drawn to once..or maybe twice during the rest of the lesson. He had a free period afterwards so he wandered to the food area to see if he could find himself a snack to take back to his room. Once there he noticed he'd been beaten by the boy. He managed to get everywhere first it seemed, maybe this was his chance to learn his name. It would be nice not to think of him as simply 'the new boy' all the time.

Blaine bought a sandwich at the counter before spinning around to see where the other boy had seated himself. He wasn't difficult to spot in what was still quite an empty food hall, he'd put a scarf around his neck in the time it had taken Blaine to finish with his order and it gave him a spark of individuality among the uniform clad students. He made his way over to the table, raising his hand in a greeting.

''Hey,'' he said, smiling at the boy before gesturing to a chair. ''Do you mind if I take a seat?''

Kurt shook his head, although he looked a little shocked at someone speaking to him. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to tell him he wouldn't be able to hear what he was saying, but he didn't have to worry for long because Blaine began asking him what his name was...in sign language. He was speaking the words too and facing Kurt to make it easier for him if he could lip read, but he was signing them too.

''Kurt'' the boy smiled at Blaine. He definitely hadn't expected someone trying to communicate with him on his first day, especially not the person he recognized from the common room performance earlier in the day. He wondered how he knew sign language, but that was a question that could be saved for later.

''I'm Blaine,'' he replied, spelling his name due to it not being the most common one around. ''It's nice to meet you,'' he smiled genuinely as he spoke.

''It's nice to meet you too,'' Kurt said. ''I'm not very good at sign language just yet, I'm still learning,'' admitting that before had been difficult, he didn't want to have to learn a whole new way of communicating when he knew very few people would be able to talk to him that way anyway, but somehow seeing that someone else knew how to use it gave him a new found confidence in it. ''I can lip read pretty well, though.'' His skills as an actor and singer had allowed him to observe various different speaking patterns so, luckily, he'd picked up a useful skill before losing his hearing.

''I'm sure you'll soon learn,'' Blaine made sure still to face him to make their communication easier. He thought about asking when he'd lost his hearing, thinking it must have been fairly recent if he wasn't confident with sign language yet, but he decided there was plenty of time for that later once he'd got to know more about him. ''And if we struggle at all there's always paper.''

Kurt nodded along, Blaine was wonderful at communicating with him. He must be used to using these methods but he didn't want to pry into his life when they'd only just met. ''Paper's always good,'' he smiled, picking his sandwich up to begin eating. Blaine took this as a sign that he could eat too, he hadn't wanted to chew while someone was trying lip read, that wouldn't have been helpful to anyone.

They ate mostly in silence, stealing the odd inquisitive glance at one another when they thought the other wasn't looking. A lot was said between them even through the silence; Kurt had been planning on eating lunch alone, yet Blaine had seen him and noticed he might need some company. Eating lunch with Kurt had saved Blaine from yet another lonely lunch or, worse still, one surrounded by people who only loved him for his voice, and there was a mutual respect for each other because of their different situations.

''What are you doing for the rest of the afternoon?'' Blaine asked once he'd finished chewing. ''Do you have many more classes?''

Kurt shook his head. ''I'm studying French, but the class timetabled for this afternoon is conversational French and we haven't discovered how to adapt it yet so I asked if I could work on an assignment instead.''

''I've got French this afternoon too,'' Blaine said. ''We're probably in the same classes for that. I'm terrible at it though. Seriously terrible. I sound Italian when I speak it apparently.''

Kurt laughed a little. ''I'm sure you're not that bad. I was lucky, I got a head start when I was younger.''

''Are you boarding?'' Blaine asked, a plan popping into his head.

''Yes. I still need to sort my room out, I'll probably do that before my French actually.''

''Well then,'' Blaine reached into his pocket for the small notepad he kept in there, just in case of paper emergencies, and a pen and pushed it along the table to Kurt.

''If you give me your number I can text you when I've finished and see if you want to do something. You might be able to help me with my French grammar. I need all the help I can get.''

Kurt took the pen and immediately wrote his number before passing it back to Blaine. ''I'd like that, only if you're not busy though.''

''I'm sure I'll be able to make time,'' Blaine..if Kurt wasn't mistaken, winked at him.


End file.
